Silver Demand Hits Record In 2015

There’s been a lot of excitement over the gold market lately. With bullion prices touching $1,300 this past week, for a gain of nearly 25% since the beginning of 2016. But that performance has been overshadowed in recent weeks by another precious metal — silver. Which has jumped 20% over the last month alone.

Demand for gold‘s “little brother” came on strong last year. With overall use up 3.4% as compared to 2014, to 36,407 tonnes.

That was enough to set a yearly record for silver demand. Showing that end users in the precious metals space are favouring gold’s “little brother”.

The majority of increased demand in 2015 came from investors. With investment buying of coins and bars rising 24%, to 9,092 tonnes.

Gold’s “little brother” use in the jewelry sector was also strong. With sales here rising 1.1% to an all-time record of 7,045 tonnes.

Even as demand for silver surged, the new data from the Institute showed that supply is sagging. With the group saying that a 13.2% decline in recycled silver supply led to an overall decrease in yearly production — despite a 2.1% increase in mine supply for the year.

Such falling supply, along with rising demand, put the market for gold‘s “little brother” in deficit by 4,040 tonnes on the year. Up 65% from the 2,445 tonne deficit seen in 2014.

2015 was in fact the third year running that global silver was in supply shortfall. Suggesting that if investment demand keeps up the way it appears to be in 2016, we could see some significant upward momentum in this market.

Watch for more figures on investment demand — and also recycled supply — to see if this trend will continue.

Silver

Author: PiercePointsDave Forest writes Pierce Points Free Daily E-Letter, an advisory on mining and energy read every day by BP, Rio Tinto, JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, Repsol, GDF Suez, GE, Platts, Warburg Pincus, and the UN. Sign up for free at www.piercepoints.com. Mr. Forest has funded and managed over $80 million in global exploration and development in natural resources, and continues to design and develop projects globally. He is a professional geologist.